Case Number 02674

ANGEL: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON

The Charge

"You told me the story of my life, which since I was there, I already
knew. Why aren't I kicking you out?"

Opening Statement

Television's favorite vampire-detective-with-a-soul blasts into his very own
series and Fox has got the moody undead one covered in this box set. So sit
back, relax and enjoy Forever Knight, err, Angel.

Facts of the Case

"City Of" Doyle: "Well, I like the place. Not much with
the view, but it's got a nice Bat Cave sort of an air to it."

There is a new protector in The City of Angels and he's got a way with the
vamps.

"Lonely Hearts" Kate: "I prefer those cool bars that
are hard to get in to, but I can't get into them."

People are dying and Doyle's visions lead Angel to a not-so-trendy singles
bar looking for the killer.

"In The Dark" Spike: "How can I thank you, you
mysterious black-clad-hunk-of-a-knight-thing?" "No need little
lady. Your tears of gratitude are enough for me. You see, I was once a bad-ass
vampire. But love, and a pesky curse, defanged me. And now, I'm just a *big*
fluffy puppy with bad teeth. No! Not the hair! Never the hair."
"But there must be some way I can show my appreciation."
"No, helping those in need's my job. And working up a load of sexual
tension and prancing away like a magnificent poof is truly thanks
enough." "I understand. I have a nephew who's gay,
so..." "Say no more. Evil's still afoot. And I'm almost out of
that Nancy-boy hair gel I like so much. Quick! To the Angel-mobile!
Away!"

There is a ring that enables a vampire to walk in the daylight while also
making the wearer impervious to harm. Angel has it but doesn't want it, which is
a situation a chipless Spike is more than willing to fix.

The important lesson of this episode is that everyone needs to get in touch
with their feelings. Feelings and that all self-help gurus are in league with
demons, but we knew that already didn't we?

"The Bachelor's Party" Harry: "Oh please, Uncle John.
When's the last time you pried yourself away from ESPN to spill the blood of a
she-goat?"

Like any good supporting character, Doyle has a few secrets that need to be
told. His involve an ex-wife and her name is Harry. Don't ask.

"I Will Remember You" Angel: "Why did you never tell me
about chocolate and peanut butter?" Buffy: "Well, I figured if
your vamp taste buds couldn't really savor it, then it would only hurt you to
know."

What if two people shared the perfect day but only one of them was allowed
to remember it?

"Hero" Doyle: "Is that it? Am I done?"

There comes a point where everyone is faced with their defining moment. To
that end, Nazi-like demons are on a murderous crusade to maintain purity,
hunting out demon half-breeds, and the only people standing in their way are
Angel and Doyle.

"Parting Gifts" Wesley: "You! Butcher an innocent girl,
will you? I'm going to thrash you within an inch of your life. And then I'm
gonna take that inch!!!"

Quicker than Spock can tell McCoy to "Remember," Cordelia has
inherited Doyle's gift and those splitting migraines. Oh, and a rogue demon
hunter named Wesley is out prowling on Angel's turf.

"Somnambulist" Angelus: "When they invite you in, savor
it, Penn. You'll not recapture the moment. Family blood is always the
sweetest."

A child from Angel's past is hunting on the streets of L.A. and haunting
Angel's dreams.

"Expecting" Serena: "The good ones are always
gay."

Pretty much the worst episode from Angel's first season finds
Cordelia knocked up with demon spawn after a one night stand. I think that
happens to her a lot.

"She" Angel: "On the left, one spies the painter
himself; in the middle distance is the French poet and critic Baudelaire, a
friend of the artist. Now, Baudelaire -- interesting fellow. In his poem Le
Vampire, he wrote: 'Thou who abruptly as knife did come to my Bachelor the l
heart.' He strongly believed that evil forces surrounded mankind. And some even
speculated that the poem was about a real vampire. Oh, and Baudelaire is
actually a little taller and a lot drunker than he's depicted here."

Demon hotties from another dimension are being hunted by the men who would
keep them docile and obedient. Naturally, Angel tries to help.

Angel and Wesley get to play Max von Sydow and Jason Miller to a little boy
possessed.

"Prodigal Son" Darla: "Your victory over him took but
moments." Angel: "Yes." Darla: "But his defeat
of you will last lifetimes." Angel: "What are you talking about?
He can't defeat me now." Darla: "Nor can he ever approve of you.
In this world or any other. What we once were informs all that we have become.
The same love will infect our hearts, even if they no longer beat. Simple death
won't change that." Angel: "Love. Is this the work of
love?" Darla: "Darling boy. So young. Still so very
young."

Detective Lockley's father is running with a dangerous crowd as Angel
reflects on his own parental issues.

"The Ring" Cordelia: "Someone ought to create an
Intra-Demon Dating Base. You know, like ArchFiend.org -- Where the lonely and
the slimy connect."

Fight Club meets Angel. Which means the first rule is?

"Eternity" Angelus: "Tell you what. I'll torture ya for
a few unbelievably long hours, and you can tell me if this is the lifestyle for
you."

An actress wants to hang on to her youth at any cost, so she does the only
logical thing -- she gives Angel a moment of absolute bliss. Actors.

"Five By Five" Faith: "Face it, Wesley, you really were
a jerk. Always walking around like you had some great big stake rammed up your
English Channel."

Guess who is out of a coma and working for Wolfram & Hart?

"Sanctuary" Wesley: "I don't know how much my opinion
counts for, but I think you did the right thing." Angel:
"Yelling at Buffy?" Wesley: "No. The other thing." Angel: "I didn't do it. Faith did." Wesley: "Perhaps
she's strong enough to make it. Peace is not an easy thing to find."
Angel: "She has a chance."

Faith turns a corner, but Buffy is back to kick her ass into the street. M e
o w.

"War Zone" Alonna: "Say good-bye to everything you ever
knew."

Slaying vampires isn't all glamour and dark clothing. It's a street level
battle waged in out of the way places, and one of its strongest warriors is a
man named Gunn. Do I smell a new supporting character?

Wolfram & Hart is up to their usual dirty tricks. This time they have
hired a blind girl with incredible abilities who is no way related to Ben
Affleck, and in the process a choice will have to be made.

"To Shanshu in L.A." Lilah: "Are we going to be
late?" Holland: "You never want to be on time for a ritual. They
chanting, the blood rites...they go on forever."

A demon has been called, Cordelia is going mad from her visions, Wesley was
in the office when it exploded, the Powers-That-Be have been destroyed, and
Angel has a surprise waiting for him in a box.

The Evidence

When last we saw Joss Whedon's brooding vampire-with-a-soul at the end of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer's third season, he was disappearing into the
smoky ruins of Sunnydale High School, leaving his beloved slayer behind. His
exit brought to a close one of the central themes of Buffy's third year --
taking stock, growing up, and moving on. With season four, Buffy and Willow
headed off to college while Angel took up residence in Los Angeles. This simple
move speaks volumes to the simplicity and elegance of the way Joss Whedon works.
Where else would a hero named Angel start kicking butt and taking names than in
the City of Angels?

Series creators Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt took the opportunity to
slightly re-imagine Angel as a character and to open up the show so it played on
a scale larger than Buffy. No longer was Angel watching Buffy from the
shadows and moving in to help only when he was needed. Now he was taking a more
proactive stance in his fight against evil and the dark forces. Much as the
slayer patrolled the graveyards and back alleys of Sunnydale, Angel was cruising
the mean streets of L.A., looking for trouble in whatever form it chose to take.
He was waging a solitary fight that would bring to bear the first season's real
arc -- the need for companionship and family.

Angel lived underground that first year, his dark coat cracked in the wind
like a cape, he used a surprising amount of gadgets, and he had a really cool
car. So many overt references are made in the first season of Angel to
Batman that it's easy to miss the one that would stick. In the comics, Batman is
always described as a loner who battles evil, when in actuality he has more
members fighting with him than most team books have heroes -- Robin (pick your
version), Nightwing, Batgirl, Oracle, Catwoman, Azrael, Huntress, Spoiler,
Harold, and Alfred. And those are just off the top of my head. Through he may
say otherwise, Batman has attracted a team in spite of all his pronouncements.
Angel is much the same way. Right from the first episode, the half-demon Doyle
explains to Angel that his solitary fight is going nowhere because, in his
post-Buffy world, Angel does not allow himself to become close to anyone. He
moves from fight to fight, literally helping and pushing away. So is it any
surprise that by season's end, Angel would find himself allied with Cordelia,
Wesley, and Gunn?

The Batman mythos also influences Angel on a deeper and more subtle
level. Bruce Wayne became the Batman because he watched his parents killed in
front of him. The spirit of vengeance and the need for justice are the primary
forces that lead to the creation of the Dark Knight. It also further explains
his subconscious need to surround himself with an extended "family."
With Angel, the circumstances are different but no less profound for his
character. Liam did not watch someone else kill his family; as the vampire
Angelus he killed his own family. Unable to win the acceptance of his father, he
chose instead to destroy his life, and in the process created a ghost that
drives him to this day. Certainly his years of terrorizing and killing humans
impacted the character, but this early deed helps explain his actions since
being cursed with a soul. His inability to ever connect with his father or win
his approval shaped the man Angel would become. Like so much of the series, it's
this ironic, yet poetic, simplicity that gives weight to Angel's character.

If the fleshing out of Angel gave the show its dramatic core, then
David Boreanaz was forced to grow as an actor. It's amazing to see how far he
has come since that first season of Buffy. Where once was a pretty boy
who was a clearly an awkward actor, moving on to Angel Boreanaz grew
rather nicely into a leading man. The show is his, and he shows levels of
complexity that I did not think he possessed. As an actor he can handle the
action stuff with ease while balancing the serious nature of his character with
an almost goofy sense of humor.

If Joss Whedon and his team of writers have proven anything over the years,
it's an uncanny ability to take characters that would appear to be one note and
turn them into living, breathing people. Certainly Charisma Carpenter's Cordelia
Chase is one such example. Starting out on Buffy as the superficial
über-bitch, Cordelia would grow in unexpected directions all the while
staying true to her original concept. I always felt the show walked a tightrope
with Cordelia Chase, and frankly I could not imagine her going much further as a
character if she had remained on Buffy. So, enter Angel and
co-creator David Greenwalt wanting to bring along Carpenter. A new set of
circumstances are introduced, and by season's end it's easy to see that Angel is
not the only character to have radically evolved. The Cordelia Chase we see by
the 22nd episode is someone that nobody could have seen coming. It's all very
organic, it plays by the rules of the show, and it makes perfect sense. To
Carpenter's credit she is well aware of the initial stereotype of her character
and she is able to play with that image and turn it on its ear.

Going back and watching Angel's first season, I was struck by how
important a role Glenn Quinn played as Doyle. Doyle is the half-demon sidekick
who first tells Angel of his role within the scheme of things. He introduces
Angel to The Powers That Be and he is the one who pushes Angel on his way back
to humanity. In many ways, Doyle is the key to the success of the show's first
season. Quinn was simply wonderful. He had a marvelous sense of humor that
balanced the dark nature of the show, and his humanity helped ground those early
episodes when everyone else was feeling their way around. When he was suddenly
written out of the show, it came as a huge shock and there were stories that his
exit was due to drug addiction. Creator Whedon publicly maintained that he had
always planned to do away with Doyle, but it always rang a little false to me.
With the actor's passing late last year from a drug overdose, these questions
were raised all over again. I suppose we will never know the answer, to but it's
impossible to look at the show Angel grew into and not see the influence
Doyle had on it.

If Quinn's exit rocked the show, then the choice to replace him was also
surprising and served as another example as to how far the writers were willing
to go in order to explore a character. In Buffy's third season her
Watcher, Rupert Giles, was fired by the Watcher's Council and in his place a new
watcher, Wesley Wyndam-Price, joined the series. If Giles was steady under fire,
Wyndam-Price was a wet noodle. Make that a hysterical wet noodle. Who fell down.
A lot. Wesley basically served the show in the same one note way as Cordelia did
early in its run. Seeing him again was the last thing I ever expected, which is
usually what Team Whedon is so good at doing. Like Carpenter with Cordelia,
Alexis Denisof shows quite a bit of growth as Wesley in the time spent on Angel
in its freshman season.

Since Angel is a spin-off and at the time was on the same network as
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it stands to reason that there would be some
crossover action, and sure enough, we see some familiar Sunnydale faces. Sarah
Michelle Geller turns up in the first episode, which gave hints as to just how
good Angel could be, the bittersweet "I Will Remember You," and
once again in "Sanctuary," where the storyline of the second slayer,
Faith (Eliza Dushku), would be put to rest. James Marsters would blow into L.A.
as Spike and Seth Green would follow in his usual deadpan fashion in the episode
"In The Dark." These actors forge a nice bridge between the two shows
and their appearances never feel like gimmicks or stunt casting.

It's a credit to the writing staff that even with all these well known
faces, the show would start to develop its own supporting cast without ever once
feeling crowded. Julie Benz is also a Buffy holdover, but in Angel
her role as Angel's sire is really explored and her entrance into the series
created ripples that are felt in its current season. Law & Order's
Elisabeth Rohm would be introduced as Detective Kate Lockley and would remain
with the show through its second season. Like any good show feeling its way
through, we are never sure what she is meant to be. Love interest for Angel,
ally on the police department, or antagonist? The final member of Team Angel
introduced in season one was J. August Richards as Charles Gunn. Kind of an
urban street level ally for Angel, his character would also see a great deal of
growth as the seasons progressed and would become a valued member of the
clan.

Still, the greatest creation the writers came up with was less one person
than an entity. The law firm of Wolfram & Hart would serve as de facto
antagonist for the series and it introduced attorneys Lindsey McDonald
(Christian Kane) and Lilah Morgan (Stephanie Romanov) into the mix. For all
those people who think lawyers are devil spawn, Angel proves that you are
not that far off the mark. Like the best of Whedon creations, there is nothing
standard about these characters. Over time they would make the same kind of
difficult decisions as our heroes and would prove to be both interesting as
villains and allies.

I'll be the first person to admit that not every episode of this first
season was perfect, but there are no real clunkers in the lot. Granted, the
creators had the advantage of knowing their main characters going in, but
overall the first season of Angel ended up being a stronger effort than
Buffy the Vampire Slayer enjoyed in its first season. It may not be a
fair comparison, but there you have it.

Another advantage Angel had over Buffy in its first year was
money. Buffy started out being shot on 16mm, and as my reviews of the
first two seasons can attest to, things looked pretty poor. Angel jumped
right out of the gate being produced on 35mm and the higher quality is easy to
spot. The overall picture is strong with excellent detail. Colors appear
natural, blacks are deep and rich with only a minor lack of shadow detail. There
is also the occasion shimmer in the transfer, but these instances are nothing
worth crying about. What needs to be noted, however, is when viewing disc one on
a larger size display, there are some problems visible. A slight smearing of the
image occurs in certain spots and there are instances of image flutter. Oddly
enough, these are only apparent in the first disc of the set.

If there was one great surprise on the tech end of things, it's how strong a
2.0 Dolby Surround mix Angel throws out. This mix has more bass and
directional effects than I've heard on some so-called 5.1 tracks, and in many
spots might even be called aggressive. Everything is well integrated and the mix
has a great sense of space and depth. Dialogue, sound effects, and the
atmospheric music of the series all exist beautifully. The show has always had a
more cinematic feel and scope than Buffy, and it's really evident with
the audio. Hats off for a job well done.

I wish I had more to say about the extra features on this set, but there
isn't a whole lot here. The highlight of any Mutant Enemy box set is going to be
a commentary with Joss Whedon, and that is certainly the case. Sitting down with
Whedon is series co-creator David Greenwalt and together they take us through
the first hour of Angel. It's a funny, breezy, and informative track up
to a point. Touching on almost every facet of the production except one, this is
just a solid commentary. The second track is by Jane Espenson for the episode
"Rm W/A Vu," and while it's not as good as the Whedon/Greenwalt
commentary, it's a whole lot better than her effort found on the Buffy the
Vampire Slayer season three set.

From a serious fan point of view, that is pretty much it. There are a few
short featurettes that include a season one overview, introductions to Angel and
Cordelia, and a look at the monsters seen on the show's first year. Round that
out with some production stills, some blueprints, a couple of scripts, and cast
bios, and you've got it.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

Taking everything into account, this is a pretty good DVD set of a really
good season of television, but there are flaws. First off, where is the
widescreen love? Angel first hit the airwaves in 1999, so I'm reasonably
certain the show was shot for eventual broadcast in High Def as mandated by the
FCC, and Joss Whedon has maintained that he sees the show as a widescreen
series. Who am I to argue with Joss Whedon? Everything about this show screams
for that widescreen feel, so why no letterbox? It wasn't until its third year
that the WB actually broadcast the series in widescreen format, but let's hope
DVD viewers get that pleasure with the season two box.

I found the set a little lacking in the extras as well. It's always great to
hear Whedon sit down for a commentary track, and Jane Espenson's is a whole lot
better than the one she recorded for Buffy season three, but after that,
well, there isn't much else. Sure, there are a few brief featurettes, but it's
pretty slim pickings at best and to top it all off, there is barely a mention
made of Glenn Quinn as Doyle. I was truly saddened to read of his recent death
and I have no wish for anyone to speak ill of the deceased, but it's obvious
something happened. To my mind, the whole point of commentaries is to relay what
goes one behind the scenes, and Doyle being written out is the biggest behind
the scenes story from Angel's first season. I guess at some point there
will be an E! True Hollywood Story: The Life and Death of Glenn Quinn,
but I would think Whedon and Company would want a chance to set the record
straight on their own before something more exploitive does it for them.

Closing Statement

Angel has the distinct advantage of being able to exist on its own
without depending on a viewer's intimate knowledge of what happened previously
on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Even with the crossover episodes, the show
is able to stake out its own claim and to stand very much on its own feet.
Certainly, having the entire backstory adds to the viewing pleasure, but if you
have never seen an episode of Buffy, don't worry, Angel explains
everything you need to know.

I have to admit I've always felt Angel was a wildly inconsistent
show, especially in comparison to Buffy, so I was surprised to find
myself enjoying the first season as much as I did. The writing and acting is
generally stronger throughout than I remembered, and in many ways I miss the
simpler tone the series took in its beginning days. Overall, this set gets a
strong recommendation, and since it's commonly found in stores for under $50.00,
it's a pretty good deal as well.

The Verdict

Cleared of all charges, Angel is free the prowl the handy tunnels of L.A.
fighting evil wherever it may lurk.